ACCC targets Google in federal court
The consumer watchdog is taking on Google, initiating “world-first” federal court action that alleges that the tech behemoth “misled consumers” about the location data it accumulated in 2017 and 2018. The ACCC’s action accuses Google of flouting consumer laws by not “properly informing” Android smartphone users about the scale of data they would relinquish in using the devices. Even users who disabled the ‘location history’ feature still permitted ads “and other Google services” to track users’ whereabouts. The company could be fined up to $10 million, or 10% of annual turnover.